LET'S WALK

I moved to New York City in the fall of 2002 with no job, apartment, or social network of any kind.

 

Keep in mind, this was a pre-Facebook, pre-smartphone era of city living. The best way to meet people was to…well…talk to them. And the best way to do that was to put myself in social situations that were conducive to conversations.

 

So I joined an Open Mic at Lilly Coogan’s, an east village dive bar on 6th Street and 1st Ave (Now International Bar). 

 

Then I became a volunteer tour guide for Big Apple Greeters, a non-profit that specialized in giving European tourists an authentic New York experience by asking its guides to showcase “their” New York, centering on where locals go.

 

The Open Mic taught me how to entertain, while tour guiding forced me to discover and explore “my” version of New York.

 

Through the process of developing the walking tour you’re about to embark on, I fell deeply in love with the City. Cultural significance resonates around every corner. I’ve led the Bleeker Street Tour  literally hundreds of times, with thousands of people. And each and every time, it’s…. different. 

 

I can’t tell you why. Perhaps it has to do with the ever changing patina of a modern city that’s growing old.

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What you are about to embark on is special. It’s remarkable in a way that I cannot express. But you will know it when you feel it. And nothing makes me happier that to share it with you.

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